They were willing to settle for Premier Dalton McGuinty - no sign of him, either, even after hundreds of teenagers called his name for half an hour.

Damp, cold, exhausted, their voices hoarse from a day of chanting and singing, students and supporters of PCVS made it home Monday night after holding a rally outside Queen's Park in Toronto.

The students, called Raiders in Action, sang, danced, played drums and cheered for several hours in cold, rainy weather.

Their goal was to get a few minutes with Laurel Broten, the education minister.

But it was Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal who came out to greet the more than 400 people who travelled in 10 school buses to the provincial Legislature.

"Minister Broten wanted to be here but she's busy in meetings," Leal said, praising the students for their dedication and chatting with PCVS supporters in the crowd.

Their message remains the same: Closing the school, as decided by the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board after an accommodation review process aimed at addressing declining enrolment, is wrong, and Leal's Liberal minority government should do something to help.

Leal urged them to let the process work, reminding them that the province has received a formal request for an administrative review of the process, as well as the board's response to that request, and will consider whether to appoint a facilitator to see if there were flaws in the process that led to the Sept. 30 vote to close the downtown school by 2012.

Afterward, he told The Examiner the PCVS students were "inspiring" and he was proud to see their commitment.

"Everybody's having a great time, which is surprising considering the crummy weather," said Matthew Finlan, president of the school's student council.

Finlan and other student leaders spent much of the rally leading the way with megaphones as parents and supporters cheered them on.

"We're doing this for the children who will come along in the future," said parent Sandra Bruce, whose daughter Kirsten led much of the cheering even while dealing with strep throat.

After Leal returned to the legislature, NDP education critic MPP Peter Tabuns came out and told students his party stands behind their mission.

"When you lose a good school, no government can ever afford to buy it back," Tabuns said to loud cheers.

The Tories sent their representative out a couple of hours later: newly elected Northumberland MPP Rob Milligan told the students he was on their side.

"I will fight for your school," he told students.

And the school is worth fighting for, said a graduate who now lives nearby.

"My heart will always be with PCVS," said Melody Thomas, now in her fourth year of music studies at the University of Toronto.

"I dealt with a lot of really difficult stuff as a teenager. PCVS really pulled me through that."

She said she grappled with homelessness in her senior year and school staff, faculty and students all pitched in to help her finish her year.

This involved the use of a small food bank in the school and programs to pay for her to attend music events.

"I think the school saw me as someone who was hard working and driven and knew I wasn't some slacker," she said, adding PCVS gives rise to student who excel and achieve through a climate of understanding. For instance, she said, students who couldn't afford to buy a seat on the buses Monday had their costs covered by fellow students.

She has been unable to get to Peterborough as often as she'd like, but lives near Queen's Park and was happy to head down to take part.

"I feel great to able to take part and help the cause."

The cause was fired up as the first buses pulled away from PCVS Monday morning, with teachers donating and preparing 475 lunches and sending the students off with cheerful waves. On the buses, which were chartered and paid for by the Save PCVS committee, students sang and laughed and talked about the planned closure. Each bus had a pair of volunteer adult supervisors.

And the mood continued all day, as students set up temporary shelters on the muddy grass in front of Queen's Park under the watchful eye of Toronto police officers and Legislature security guards.

"Hey," one teen cried out while reading the plaque outside the government building, "our school is even older than this place!"

The students showed no sign of slowing down as the drizzly day wore on, drumming, celebrating and waving colourful signs (with slogans like "Raiders of the Lost ARC") painted over the weekend. And they were loud - their drumbeats and chants echoed through the Toronto streets, causing many passersby to stop and ask what "PCVS" meant.

Throughout the day, parents repeated common themes: PCVS is uniquely inclusive and safe, children are happier there ... and the board messed up, many said, by not taking that into account.

"It isn't right that trustees from out of town should be making these decisions," said parent Renata Spasov.

Volunteers handed out information pamphlets.

"I was just in the (legislature) gallery," said PCVS Foundation chairman Jay Amer, adding he had lunch with Leal on unrelated business. "We could hear the drums from inside. At first we thought it was the subway but then we realized it was PCVS."

He was soon joined by Durham MPP John O'Toole, who heard about the rally and came out to see the students. The Peterborough native pointed out that he's a PCVS graduate and still has plenty of school spirit.

Finlan said school spirit - something on display for months since the accommodation review began - was in full force Monday.

"Everybody's loving this," he said as Toronto television news teams arrived to investigate the ruckus.

Tracy Thomas, a Toronto resident, was there with a friend whose daughter goes to PCVS.

Thomas's daughter attends a performing arts school in Etobicoke.

Closing a school with such a dedicated focus is a mistake, said Thomas (no relation to Melody Thomas).

"As a school, it's a whole culture that can't just be taken away or moved," she said.

NOTE: A tractor-trailer's floor collapsed on Highway 401 near Brock Rd. in Pickering Monday evening, reducing eastbound traffic to one lane. This meant the return trip from Queen's Park took 3 1/2 hours or longer.